The nature of gifting comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s why we started with gift cards, and continued to add features that speak to the different occasions and situations customers face when looking for that perfect gift. It’s also why today we’re launching our new bulk gifting feature, just in time for the 2022 holiday season.
We’ve offered the ability to issue gift cards in bulk for a long time. However this new feature makes it even easier, faster, and more convenient for customers looking to buy many gift cards at the same time. Using Govalo’s bulk gift feature, customers can purchase as many gift cards as they want right from within your storefront.
This will make it easier not just for your customers, but for your team behind the scenes. The feature is now available in the app for merchants on Govalo’s Enterprise tier.
How Govalo’s bulk gifting feature works
Our new feature allows customers to purchase gift cards in bulk directly from your storefront as they would any other product.
Here’s how it works, step-by-step:
On your regular gift card product page, the customer will have the option to buy more than one.
A pop-up will then appear, prompting the customer to upload a CSV file with the details of their gift cards. They also have the option to download a template CSV, to ensure all details needed for the bulk order are formatted correctly.
The template can include all the same details as a regular gift card - name, email address, gift note, value, and even the date the gift card should be delivered.
Once uploaded, the customer will then see a list with the recipients’ details along with the gift card value for each, and can then add the gift cards to their cart. If there are any incorrect details in the CSV file, this will flag up upon upload and the customer will be requested to check the details and try again.
Once added to the cart, gift cards of the same value will be grouped together. So, for example, if you order 10 gift cards of a $10 value, and 10 gift cards of a $20 value, they will appear as two separate line items with a quantity of 10 each.
The customer then proceeds with their purchase as they would any regular gift card order.
Our existing bulk issue feature only allows your team to upload the CSV file in the back-end Govalo app. This is useful of course for issuing gift cards for promotions and events, however it adds a few extra steps if a customer wishes to purchase in bulk. Having this separate bulk gift card purchase option right on your storefront removes a lot of those steps, providing a much smoother customer experience.
How to add Govalo’s bulk gifting feature to your store
Ready to add this feature to your store? It’s simple and fast, meaning you can add this highly valuable functionality to your store in no time.
Step #1 - From Shopify Admin, navigate to the Govalo app dashboard. Click “Configure” and scroll down to the “General” section.
Step #2 - Click “Corporate/Bulk Gifting”
Step #3 - Click “Enable”, then “Save”.
And that’s it! If you want to change any of the text associated with the feature, you just need to do the following:
Step #1 - In the Govalo app, go to “Configure” then “Configure Language”.
Step #2 - Scroll down to the section “Bulk gift card purchase page”. Here you'll have options to change text related to this feature. Save your changes when you're finished editing, and these will be reflected on your storefront.
Why your store should offer better bulk gifting functionality
#1 - More opportunities from gift cards
Gift cards aren’t just something an individual customer purchases for another individual. We know that there are many occasions and instances where you may want to buy a gift card outside of gifting. Consider for example, if you run a book club and part of that involves every member receiving a gift card to buy the next book. Or if you want to buy gift cards for your business’ team as a “thank you” after a successful project.
If we go back to gift giving for a moment, offering a meaningful gift buying experience involves providing customers with the right gift products. Those products should reflect the kind of issues your customers may run into during the gift buying process. When we look at a customer wanting to purchase gift cards in bulk, the issues they may run into become clear - there are too many steps involved compared to buying one individually.
For example, if you’re looking to buy even 10 gift cards for different recipients, adding these all individually to a cart is time consuming. Then imagine buying 50, 100, or even 1000 gift cards, and then distributing them to the right people. It can equally be time consuming for a customer to have to reach out to your team in order to facilitate the purchase and this can be off-putting.
By having that really easy bulk purchase option available on your storefront, the experience will be much better and this will in turn make it more likely that a customer will want to purchase in bulk from your store.
#2 - Corporate gifting is a growing category
Did you know that the US corporate gifting market was worth over $242 Billion in 2021? The growth in the market is expected to grow at an accelerated rate of around 8.1% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), compared to the personal gifting market at 6% CAGR.
Over the last couple of years, the desire for corporate gifting has increased and become a priority for many high growth companies around the world. It not only improves employee satisfaction, but can also help to improve client and customer relationships. Half of corporate buyers said in a survey that they also purchase gifts for clients and partners.
And what is the most common corporate gift? Gift cards.
Offering a better solution to bulk gift card purchasing also falls in line with many recent demands from corporate gift buyers. They want something that can be personalized, and they want it to be easy to organize. Both can be easily achieved through a customer-facing product designed for bulk buying, and giving buyers this will make your corporate gift option much more attractive and competitive.
#3 - Better customer experience and less manual work
Corporate and bulk gift buying is a big opportunity, however not if it adds more manual work for your team. The rise in ecommerce automation has made it so that teams can focus on more important tasks day-to-day, so adding more manual work to accommodate bulk gift card buying is counterintuitive. If the only option is for a corporate customer to get in touch and essentially use your support team as a middleman to purchase gift cards, that’s going to be time consuming for both parties.
Having a customer-facing option to purchase makes for a better customer experience, as well as making sure you aren’t adding more manual effort into the process for your team. You can offer a better product that has little to no impact on the day-to-day running of your business, but has the potential to add huge value to your store.
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We’re delighted to be launching this high value feature to Govalo ahead of the holiday season, and look forward to seeing the impact it will have in the long-term for our merchants.
If you’d like to learn more about this feature, click here to view our support documentation.
And if you’d like to speak to our team to see how this feature and others can improve your gift experience, click here.